


clocks move forward (but they don't get older)

by localspacelesbian



Category: Hocus Pocus (1993), Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Grief, Mostly Pre-Canon, Sunset Curve, canon character deaths are mentioned, canon compliant mostly?, i mean they're ghosts so yeah, julie's lowkey a witch, kenny ortega cinematic universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:35:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27463531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/localspacelesbian/pseuds/localspacelesbian
Summary: Max Dennison gets the worst news of his life and reflects on his life before moving to Salem.
Relationships: Alex & Julie Molina & Luke Patterson & Reggie, Max Dennison & Allison Watts
Comments: 13
Kudos: 45





	clocks move forward (but they don't get older)

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by [this post](https://perfectharmony.tumblr.com/post/633536459897454592/do-yall-wanna-hear-the-headcanon-i-had-after)

Max and Dani walked up to their house. He’d just picked her up from softball practice, and was teasing her about one of the other girls on her team that she totally had a crush on. (It was her first crush, and therefore, very much deserving of relentless teasing from her older brother.) She rolled her eyes, pretending to be mad about it, but he could see she was smiling. Their smiles fell from their faces as soon as they got inside. Max didn't know what it was exactly, but something felt off. They shared a look, and he knew Dani felt it too. They made their way to the living room and found their parents sitting together on the couch. They looked up at their kids, and Max could see that his mom's eyes were red, like she'd been crying. He felt his heart sink.

"What’s up?" He asked nervously.

His parents shared a look, and then his mom gestured for them to join her on the couch as their dad moved to the recliner to make room. Dani curled up in his spot next to their mom, and Max sat next to her, turned slightly to face them.

"We got a phone call today," his dad started. "From Carolyn Joyner…”

No. He already knew it was bad news. He felt himself shake his head, but it didn’t quite feel real, like he was watching this conversation happen to someone else.

“Alex, Luke, and Reggie,” His mom continued, but then trailed off, taking a shaky breath.

_ No.  _ Whatever happened, it couldn’t be all three of them.

His dad took over. “They passed away on Saturday night.”

No. This wasn’t real. This couldn’t be happening. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see his sister start to cry. and he couldn’t bring himself to look at her, so he kept looking at his dad. “What happened?” He wasn’t sure why he needed to know, but he did. Three teenagers didn’t just drop dead for no reason.

His dad shared a look with his mom before answering. “Food poisoning.”

“No.” He said it quietly, still shaking his head.

“Max…” His mom reached over Dani toward him, but he brushed it off and stood up.

He ran upstairs to his room. He grabbed his drumsticks and sat down to play, trying in vain to drown out the noise in his head.

It had been two years since he’d seen his friends. They’d tried to stay in contact after he moved, but it was hard, and he hadn’t spoken to any of them in months.

He couldn’t believe they were gone. It just didn’t make sense. Reggie could survive electrocution but not food poisoning? That wasn’t how this was supposed to work. They couldn’t be dead. They were going to be legends. He’d known it two years ago, and he’d known it two days ago. And now… Now they were just gone.

He’d known Alex as long as he could remember. They’d been neighbors back in LA. Brothers even. Alex’s older sister Annie used to babysit them. She’d been Max’s first crush, a fact Alex found both horrifying and hilarious. His younger sister Avery was the same age as Dani and just as much a little sister to him. The two girls used to drag Max and Alex into their princess tea parties, and they’d pretend to hate it, but they always took part enthusiastically, happy to make their sisters happy.

Max’s parents were happy to let him take guitar lessons as a kid, but when he expressed interest in the drums too, they were more hesitant. Fortunately for Max, they were kind of pushovers and gave in the Christmas of fifth grade. Max was ecstatic. Almost every day, he’d play as long as he was allowed to.

When Alex came over, he offered to let him try too. After all, he shared everything his best friend, and while Alex wasn’t as into the guitar, Max knew how much he loved music. Alex hesitated, but Max just pushed him into the seat and put the drumsticks in his hand. As soon as he started playing, that hesitation was gone. Even then, when he didn’t have the words to describe it, Max knew: Alex belonged behind a drumset. All of his anxieties seemed to melt away as he whaled on the drums. He was a natural. Part of Max was jealous, but most of him was happy for his friend.

Alex was the only one who was surprised when his parents got him his own drumset a couple months later for his birthday.

They started playing together as much as they could after that. Either both of them on the drums or Alex on drums and Max on guitar. Sometimes Dani and Avery would join them, dancing and making up nonsense lyrics to go along with the music. Or they’d request their favorite songs, and the boys would try their hardest to learn them, even if it wasn’t exactly the kind of music they’d prefer to play. Annie and their parents were their only audience, but they didn’t care. They played as if it was in front of a sold out stadium.

Sometimes, they talked about forming a band. They were never serious about it. Two people wasn’t enough for a band. And neither of them knew the first thing about songwriting. They were just kids having fun in their garage, and they were fine with that.

Partway though sixth grade, there was a new student at their school. He showed up in dirty cowboy boots and a red flannel that was much too big for him. He was quiet, so Max didn’t give him much thought. Until lunch when Alex saw him sitting by himself and insisted they joined him. Max resisted at first, but he could never say no to Alex. He never regretted it.

Reggie didn’t talk much at first. But he seemed sweet, and they quickly discovered that he loved music too. He could play the bass guitar, the piano,  _ and _ the banjo (though he was a bit hesitant to admit to the last one). And once they got him started talking, they couldn’t get him to stop. Not that they minded one bit. His excitement was contagious; whether he was talking about music or  _ Star Wars _ or his grandparents’ ranch, Alex and Max were happy to listen.

So two became three.

After a couple months, Reggie started leaving his bass at Max’s house. He said he pretty much only used it there anyway. He said the noise bothered his parents. Over the course of the next year or so, he also started spending more and more time at either Max or Alex’s house. Max didn’t want to push, but he knew Reggie talked to Alex about it sometimes. It didn’t bother him though. Alex was just better at that kind of thing. He was the emotional one, and they all knew it, but they never judged him for it.

Between the three of them, they managed to put together a few songs. Nothing showstopping, but it was fun. Mostly though, they played covers from their favorite bands. Or their sisters’ favorite bands. Dani and Avery absolutely adored Reggie, and the feeling was mutual. It really was a tragedy that Reggie was an only child because he was a perfect older brother. Sometimes, Max would get home and find Reggie already there, hanging out with Dani, watching tv or playing games or doing crafts. Those days, Max shook his head in amusement, set his bag down, and offered to get them some snacks.

In the spring of their eighth grade year, there was a talent show at school. Reggie was bouncing as he told the other two about it. Alex seemed nervous, and Max was unsure, but it didn’t take much convincing for them to agree to do it. What did take forever was choosing a song to cover, and then they practiced nonstop for weeks.

When the day finally came, Alex and Max’s parents drove them and their sisters to the middle school. It was the first time they ever performed in front of a real crowd, and Alex was (in his own words) “yack-in-a-bowl nervous.” But like always, as soon as they started playing, that fear went away. Max was in awe of how much Alex and Reggie looked like they belonged on stage. He felt alive and free, and he knew the other two felt it too. It was one of the best nights of his life. He laughed when Reggie winked at some of the girls in the front row during his solo, and the girls turned to each other giggling. In the end, they got second place, which was more than any of them were expecting if they were being completely honest. First place went to a group of cheerleaders who had done a dance to some pop song. Max and Reggie agreed that they were very cute, and Alex agreed that the choreography was fantastic. But as good as they were, the boys all agreed they would have preferred to lose to someone else.

Luke Patterson had been one of the last performers of the night. He’d gotten up there and played a song he’d written himself. He had the whole audience captivated, including Max, Alex, and Reggie. He was a better singer than a middle schooler had any right to be. Max’s hands almost hurt just watching the way he played his guitar. But more than that, he had this energy. Max didn’t know how to describe it, but he belonged on that stage. Even if none of them would admit it at the time (or ever), Max, Alex, and Reggie all fell a little bit in love with Luke Patterson that day. They couldn’t believe he didn’t even place.

The three boys walked out of the school together, their families already waiting for them by their cars. They had their arms around each other, Reggie in the middle, as they walked, stumbling slightly, drunk on adrenaline from the night. Suddenly, Alex stopped, and the other two almost fell down. They followed his gaze. There was someone sitting on a bench in front of the school. They shared a look, and then Alex started walking up to them, Reggie and Max following closely behind. As they got closer, they recognized Luke Patterson, sitting next to his guitar case. His leg was bouncing the same way Alex’s did when he was nervous or Reggie’s did when he seemed to be overflowing with energy.

“Hey,” Alex said.

Luke startled a bit and then smiled up at them. “Hey, you guys were really good tonight.”

“Thanks. So were you,” Alex said. There was a slight nervousness in his voice only someone who knew him as well as Max did could detect.

“Yeah, it’s a crime you didn’t get first,” Reggie added.

Luke looked down, the same look on his face that Alex got when someone complimented him. “Thanks.”

After a slightly awkward pause, Reggie asked, “Where are your parents?”

Luke looked off toward the parking lot and shrugged. “They should be on their way.” He didn’t seem very sure about that.

“They didn’t come watch you perform?” Alex asked, as if the very idea didn’t make sense to him, as if his parents weren’t Reggie’s ride home for the same reason. But then maybe Alex had been considering Reggie a brother for long enough by that point it didn’t even occur to him that Reggie’s parents weren’t there.

Luke just shrugged again. “My dad was busy, and I think my mom’s already starting to regret buying me this guitar.”

Reggie had a look on his face like he  _ got it _ , which in itself was heartbreaking. Max finally spoke. “Do you need a ride?” He was sure his parents wouldn’t mind.

Luke looked up at the other three boys and considered for a minute before a small smile spread on his face. “Sure. Thanks.”

The next Monday, Reggie was late to lunch, which was rare. It didn’t take long for them to figure out why though. When he showed up, he wasn’t alone. Luke was with him, looking slightly unsure. Max and Alex happily welcomed him to join them.

So three became four.

With Luke, they started to think maybe they could actually start taking this band thing seriously. He brought his guitar and his voice. He brought his lyrics. He brought a cohesive sound. And he brought an energy and drive they’d been lacking.

The summer before high school, they spent nearly every moment they could practicing in Max’s garage. It was the best summer of their lives. When they weren’t practicing, they were just hanging out, talking, listening to music. And trying to come up with a good band name. It felt as if they’d been through hundreds of suggestions.

One evening, they were sitting on the roof of the garage together, and there was a lull in the conversation. Max watched the sun get closer and closer to the trees and houses lining the horizon and the sky start to change colors, and it hit him. “Hey, what about Sunset?”

“What about the sunset?” Reggie asked.

“Like, as a name. Sunset… Sunset something. I don’t know.”

They all sat with it for a second, thinking it over as they continued to look out at the water.

“Sunset Curve.”

The other three looked at Alex, his words sinking in.

“Sunset Curve,” Luke repeated, a smile starting to form on his face. “I like it.”

The others agreed. They started repeating the name to themselves until they no longer felt like words, and then they started laughing at the absurdity of it all. They laid down and looked up at the darkening sky, falling into a comfortable silence again.

“I miss the stars,” Reggie said quietly after a while.

Max had never left the city, had never seen the sky full of stars the way Reggie described from his childhood, so he couldn’t say he understood, but he reached out and squeezed Reggie’s hand anyway. Years later, he’d complain of the opposite problem; the clearer skies of Salem, Massachusetts felt vast and unfamiliar and  _ terrifying _ .

Years later, they’d be lying in the same positions on that garage when Max told him the worst news of his life. (Well, second worst, the worst would come later.) His dad got a new job on the other side of the country. They were moving in a couple weeks.

He didn’t let himself cry when he told them. He didn’t let himself cry when he helped them find a replacement for the band. (Bobby was good, and he seemed nice enough, but it was a bittersweet day when he joined Sunset Curve.) He didn’t let himself cry when they helped him pack, when they played a song they’d written for him the day before he left, or even when Avery clung to him and Dani clung to the boys as they said their goodbyes. He didn’t let himself cry as he looked back out the car window at his best friends for the last time. After all, Alex was the emotional one, and he’d cried enough tears for the both of them.

Two years later, as he whaled on his drums with sticks Alex had given him, as he thought of the friends he’d never see again, he finally let himself cry. He played as the sound become more and more off-beat and discordant until he could barely see the drums anymore through his tears. The sticks fell to the ground, and Max rubbed his hands on his thighs, trying to force himself to breathe.

“Max.”

He looked up in confusion at the familiar voice. He wiped his eyes and saw Allison standing there, looking at him with sadness in her eyes. “What are you doing here?” He looked down and saw Dani standing next to her, tearstains on her cheeks and Allison’s arm around her shoulders. “Oh.”

Allison held out her free hand to him, and he stood up. She pulled him and his sister into a hug that they both desperately needed.

At some point, they moved to the bed and fell asleep cuddled together with Dani in the middle, the way they did when any of them had an all too familiar nightmare about witches and zombies and an immortal cat dying in their arms.

Max was grateful when Allison came with them to LA for the funerals. It was weird to be back. Weirder considering why. Max never thought he would have to attend three back to back funerals of his friends before graduating high school. They all kind of blurred together. Reggie’s parents didn’t recognize him and barely spoke the whole time. Luke’s parents sobbed loudly and spoke about regrets. Alex’s parents and sisters hugged him when they saw him. Knowing how they’d treated Alex in the last couple years of his life made Max feel weird about the way they talked about him at the funeral. He couldn’t explain to his family why he seemed so uneasy, so he found himself saying he needed some air and walking outside after the funeral was over.

He came across Bobby, and the two of them walked together. He barely knew Bobby, having met him just before he moved, but the boys had talked about him on the phone enough for him to know how close they were. And now the two of them were connected through this tragedy. Both the only surviving members of Sunset Curve, even though Max had long since not been a part of the band.

They talked about their shared loss. They shared memories, both the good and the bad. They complained about the hypocrisy of their friends’ parents, who claimed to love their sons in death but had neglected them in life. And maybe they did love them, but Max wished they had shown it better while Alex, Luke, and Reggie were still alive. And maybe he was projecting a bit. Maybe he wished he had done a better job of staying in contact with them after he’d moved. Maybe he wished he’d been able to come visit them. Maybe Emily’s eulogy had hit him a little too hard. But maybe there wasn’t any point in dwelling on those regrets now.

Eventually, they made their way back. Bobby disappeared, and Max walked back to the car with his family, not realizing that would be the last time he’d ever see Bobby either, before he became someone new, someone Max would barely be able to recognize even as he played songs Max had been one of the first to hear, and one of the last to hear as they were originally intended. Songs no one else knew the true meaning of.

Eventually, it started to hurt a little less. The pain never quite went away, but it hit him less frequently and less harshly as time went on. He didn’t keep in contact with any of their families, but Dani did. At least Alex’s sisters if not any of their parents.

One day in 2020, when he hadn’t thought about his old band in a long time, he heard a familiar voice coming from his daughter Lexi’s computer. Curious, he approached her in the living room and asked what she was listening to.

She turned her screen toward him and explained, “It’s this hologram band a girl from my school started a couple months ago, Julie and the Phantoms.”

“Hologram band?” He asked as he sat down next to her and looked at the screen.

She nodded. “Yeah, the guys are all holograms.”

The camera zoomed in to the drummer as he sang a line of the song, and Max felt his breath catch in his throat. He sat there frozen as it moved to the bassist and then the guitarist before going back to the lead singer, the only person on the stage he didn’t recognize. It zoomed back out to show the whole band. They looked almost exactly as they had when he’d last seen them in 1993. He would say it was impossible if not for his experiences that Halloween. But the idea of his friends being involved in anything like that was almost harder to believe.

“Dad?” Lexi gave him a concerned look.

“You said this girl goes to your school?” He asked without looking at her.

“Yeah… Julie Molina. She’s a grade above me I think. She’s in the music program.”

He nodded. “Are there more videos of them?”

She nodded. “Yeah, there’s a couple. They performed at The Orpheum a couple weeks ago.”

The  _ Orpheum _ . No way was that a coincidence.

He wasn’t sure what he wanted to accomplish by coming here, but he needed answers. It was the same house Bobby had lived in when they were kids. He’d been here exactly once: when he’d helped the band move their stuff from his garage to Bobby’s. It was surreal being back. He took a deep breath and knocked on the front door. After a few seconds that felt like hours, it opened. He recognized the girl from the videos. She looked at him confused, and then he saw her glance at something next to her that he couldn’t see. He got a weird vibe from her. It was almost familiar, something he hadn’t felt in long time, but not quite as strong. It still made him uneasy. “Can I help you?”

He nodded. “You’re Julie, right? From Julie and the Phantoms?”

She nodded. “Yeah.”

“My name is Max Dennison. I, um… I wanted to talk to you about your band.”

She glanced to the side again for a second, as if listening to someone who wasn’t there, and then she nodded. She walked outside, closing the door behind her and started walking behind the house, gesturing for him to follow her.

They walked into the garage, and he looked around. The same weird vibes he’d felt around Julie seemed to be amplified in here. He wrinkled his eyebrows up at the chairs hanging from the ceiling. He looked back down to see her watching him.

“So… What did you want to talk about?”

He looked around. “Are they here? The guys?” He already knew the answer.

She raised her eyebrows and then laughed nervously. “What are you talking about? There’s no one here but us.”

He looked around again, trying to focus harder, and the vague feeling that they were there became more concrete. He couldn’t see them, but he could tell where they were. He could feel Alex pacing in front of the couch. Reggie sitting on top of the piano, and Luke right next to Julie, almost touching her. Alex stopped his pacing as Max turned toward him. He smiled and gave him a small wave. “Alex?”

“You can see them?” Julie asked quietly, her eyes wide.

He shook his head. “Not quite. It’s more like I can just tell where they are.” It wasn’t the first time he’d been able to feel ghosts since 1993 (he, Allison, and especially Dani had all felt a stronger connection to magical beings and the undead since then), but it was the first time it was someone he knew. “Is there a way I can talk to them?”

She looked around at each of the boys and then nodded at him. “I think so. They’re still working on being visible to other people.”

Alex appeared first, right in front of him. Max felt tears start to form in his eyes as he took a step closer to him. “Max?”

“Hi.”

Alex stepped forward and put his arms around him. He was surprised. He didn’t think ghosts could touch people, but he wasn’t going to complain. “You got old,” Alex joked.

“You died.” Max laughed through his tears. “God, I never thought I’d see you again.”

“Hey, you moved first.”

He felt the other two come over and join in on the hug. God, he’d missed them.

Eventually they separated, he wiped his eyes, and Alex pointed out, “Ok, you are surprisingly chill for someone who just found out ghosts are real.”

Max looked down. Right. He should probably explain. “That’s probably because I didn’t. Just find out, I mean.”

“What?” Luke asked.

He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s… kind of a long story.”

“Well, we literally have an eternity,” Reggie said, sitting down on the floor in front of the couch, looking up at him expectantly.

The other three shared a look, and then Alex sat down on the couch, pulling Max down next to him. Luke and Julie sat down next to Reggie.

Max nodded. Ok, so he was doing this. “Right, so remember the year I moved to Salem?” He generally tried not to think too much about that Halloween, but they deserved to know the truth. At least now he was pretty sure they’d believe him.

The guys all nodded.

“Wait, Salem as in like the witch trials?” Julie asked.

Max nodded. “Yeah. Well, turns out at least some of those witches were real.”

“I knew it!” Reggie said.

The others all gave him an amused look, but Alex looked at Max. “Wait, are you serious? Witches?”

Max glanced at Julie before shrugging. “Is that so hard to believe? You’re literally ghosts.”

Alex shrugged, like he had a point, and Julie gestured for Max to continue his story. So he did. He told them everything. He’d never told the story before, not in full. He only ever talked about it with Allison and Dani, who’d been there with him. There were details he’d forgotten until he was retelling it, things that hadn’t seemed that bad until he was looking back on it in retrospect.

When he was done, they all looked at him in shock.

Alex asked quietly, “Why didn’t you tell us?”

Max shrugged and looked down. “I didn’t think you’d believe me.”

Reggie stood up and moved to the couch, sitting on the other side of Max and putting his arm around him.

“I’m sorry,” Luke said.

Max shrugged. “It’s fine. It’s been almost 30 years.” He didn’t tell them he still sometimes had nightmares about the Sanderson Sisters. That he still sometimes felt phantom pains from when Winnie had dropped him off her broom. He decided to change the subject by asking them their own story, how they’d come back 25 years after they died and formed a new band.

They told the story together, interrupting each other and finishing each other’s sentences the way they always used to. He couldn’t help but feel a little bit like he’d been replaced (again), but he was happy that they had Julie. She seemed sweet, and he could tell they all adored her.

When they told him about Trevor, he winced. He’d tried to confront Trevor once about stealing Luke’s music. While he didn’t agree with the other man’s reasons or actions, he could understand them. Besides, even if he didn’t want to admit it out loud, he did agree that the boys’ parents didn’t deserve a single cent of the royalties.

He was worried when they told him about Caleb, but they reassured him that they’d worked everything out. And when Alex told him about Willie, he felt like a teenager again, already dying to meet the other ghost and ready to tease Alex relentlessly about it, the way he had done to him back in the day.

Eventually, it started to get late, and he stood up to leave. As he walked toward the door, Alex stopped him and asked, “Hey, um, how’s Dani doing these days?”

Max smiled. He was always happy to talk about his sister. “She’s doing great. She’s married now.”

Alex seemed surprised. “Yeah?”

Max just nodded.

“I guess she’s not a little kid anymore, huh.”

Max shrugged. “Twenty-five years is a long time.”

Alex let out a short laugh. “Yeah, it is.”

“You know, I’m kind of surprised and a little hurt you haven’t already seen Dani since you’ve been back.”

Alex wrinkled his brow. “How come?”

Max tilted his head to the side. “You haven’t seen any of your family, have you?”

Alex shook his head. Behind him, Luke and Reggie shared a look.

Max bit his lip, holding back his excitement that he got to be the one to break the news. “So, you don’t know who Dani’s married to?”

Alex shook his head again, looking confused. “Who?”

“Avery.”

Alex’s jaw dropped almost comically. “Seriously?”

Max nodded, trying to hold back a laugh. Reggie and Luke came over and put their arms around Alex, both grinning widely. “Dude,” Luke said.

“How’d my parents take that?” Alex asked after a second, like he wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer.

Max shrugged one shoulder. “Not perfect, but they’re coming around.”

Alex let out a short breath and nodded.

Max gave him a small smile. “You know, I’m not sure how this whole ghost thing works, but I’m sure they’d love to see you sometime, Dani and Avery, I mean. They miss their brothers.”

Alex nodded again, a ghost of a smile on his face. “Yeah.”

Max smiled at them before gesturing behind him toward the door. “I should…”

The boys nodded, and they all said goodbye again, and then Julie walked him out.

“Thank you for coming,” she said when they got to the front of the house. “I can tell it means a lot to them.”

“Thank you for bringing them back.” He could breathe a little better outside of the garage, but he still got those weird vibes from Julie. She hadn’t reacted weirdly to his story about the Sanderson Sisters, but…

He decided he would worry about that another day. Twenty-seven years ago, he wouldn’t have believed good witches could exist, but whatever Julie Molina was, there was no way the person who had saved Alex, Reggie, and Luke could be evil.

He gave her one last smile before leaving, and when she smiled back and told him she’d see him around, it felt genuine. In a certain light, she was almost glowing. Yeah, his boys were in good hands.


End file.
